If you go

Early in Todd Rundgren’s career, he decided essentially that being unique musically was more important and satisfying than being popular.

“I came to a point where I realized it was fruitless for me to make music that other people could make just as well,” Rundgren remarked during a recent phone interview. “I had to make music that other people weren’t making in order to justify my musical existence. It’s kind of been that way ever since.”

Rundgren, who performs at Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella on Saturday, Jan. 9, has followed that philosophy since the early 1970s, when his third solo effort, the landmark 1972 double album “Something/Anything,?” put him on the cusp of major stardom. Songs like the hit singles “Hello It’s Me,” “I Saw The Light,” as well as “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” and “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” reaffirmed Rundgren’s gift for writing concise and indelible pop gems.

Rundgren, who released his 25th solo album, “Global,” in April, realized in the wake of that initial success that he could continue in the vein of “Something/Anything?” and very possibly become one of the biggest stars of that era. But he had a different kind of career in mind, which dovetailed with his natural tendency to explore and reinvent himself musically.

“It (sticking to a successful musical blueprint) will build you an audience of a certain kind, but I don’t know if it builds the loyalty that being a little bit more bold does,” Rundgren said. “What happened was it looked like I was building up a giant, but wide, but shallow fan base through ‘Something/Anything?’ and the hit singles on the radio. And then when I pull a stunt like ‘A Wizard, A True Star’ after that, it essentially culls out all of the shallowest part of the audience and leaves you with the really committed listener. And so all of my fans, a lot of them, have been following what I’ve done for decades. It’s the reason why I still have a career.”

“A Wizard, A True Star” was a radical departure from “Something/Anything?” Rundgren turned away from the three-minute pop song format and created an album that stylistically was all over the pop/psychedelic map, and at times eccentric and sonically dense enough that it took multiple listens to absorb.

Rundgren has made more accessible albums since, but he has remained a relentlessly adventurous and frequently innovative artist.

“Global” finds Rundgren continuing to explore an electronic music vein that he first tapped with the 1993 interactive release, “New World Order” and has featured on several subsequent albums, including “Liars” (2004) and “State”(2013). Guitars are almost entirely absent on “Global,” as Rundgren uses synthesizers, sequencers, computers and programmed rhythms to create the musical backdrop for what, ironically enough, might feel like a collection of fairly conventional and equally appealing pop songs in a guitar/bass/drums setting.

As on many of recent albums, Rundgren plays all the instruments on “Global,” and he’s found that the tools of electronic dance music suit his methods as well as his music.

“It’s partly because you have broader control over sonic palate,” he said, explaining his attraction to a synthesized sound. “It’s kind of satisfying. In the old days, we used to kind of struggle to achieve some of the sounds that you kind of imagined hearing. Now it’s kind of a riot of possibilities out there.

“I mean, the things that somebody like Skrillex has done with sounds have really revolutionized everything that you hear, to the point that Skrillex is passé now,” Rundgren said. “It’s like three years ago, he was the hottest thing happening, and now everybody does what he does.”

Rundgren used much of his 2015 tour to present songs from “Global” (and his back catalog) in an unusual way, using a DJ to run tracks and a pair of background singers as his backing band. For this winter, though, Rundgren is taking a more conventional approach.

He’ll play a selection of fan favorites with a more conventional band that features long-time musical cohorts bassist Kasim Sultan, drummer Prairie Prince (of the Tubes), guitarist Jesse Gress and keyboardist Michael Ferenzik

If the live show allows him to bounce from electronic to rock band formats, Rundgren said he expects his albums to remain essentially a solo venture where he creates nearly all of the sounds himself. That’s how he made early albums like “Something/Anything?” and “A Wizard, A True Star,” and as a long-time resident of Hawaii, working alone in the studio is the only practical way to go.

“There was a phase in the middle (of the career) when I had the Utopia band and there were phases in which I insisted on doing everything live with a whole bunch of musicians in the studio,” Rundgren explained. “But when I moved to Hawaii, it became more difficult to just call a session. All of the musicians I knew were on the mainland.

“It (writing and recording alone) has become natural to me,” he said. “But still it ironically seems unusual to other people to make all of the sounds yourself.”

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